Is it a bad idea to enable all extensions which are available (even if you are not using them)?

Vulkan Vulkan: Basic Coding
#1

Hey there,

so we were wondering lately: Would it be a bad idea to enable for example all available device extensions, even if we are not using most of them? (Given the case we would check for every one to be supported by the system).

Don’t worry we are not going to do this. It’s a theoretical question.
But still, from reading the spec I can’t point the finger to the reason this would be a bad idea.
Could it decrease performance? Could it cause a crash because although the extension is marked as available it’s not working properly?

best regards,
Johannes

#2

Giving a theoretical answer to a theoretical question: yes, it’s probably a bad idea.
Reason: enabled extensions might require additional work in underlying software, like the driver, even if none of that extension is ever used.

1 Like
#3

Simple answer: Yes, it is a bad idea.

Why?
When your enable all the available extensions the application and drivers need to do additional work to get you those features that you have requested. This means its bad for performance.

And no, enabling and not using them wont cause any crashes. They are just available for use but using it or not is up to you.

1 Like